Smooth Blowfish with Bakelite (Hoplite) Tobacco Pipe

Todd Johnson's signature Blowfish shape is a charmingly stout, compact, Fugu-style interpretation with a great following. It's even been rendered as part of BriarWorks' signature line, a series celebrating the work of some of today's most talented artisans. This, as you can see, is not that shape. Though by no means any less striking, here Todd took a very different approach to the Blowfish archetype, elongating the shank and lending the bowl a much plumper style — the latter calling to mind the more modernist Balloon design favored by some contemporary artisans.

That more rounded bowl form meets the aforementioned lengthy shank by way of a gracefully sweeping transition, tying it all together and making for a beautifully fluid silhouette overall. There's still plenty of deliberate asymmetry at play as well, namely in the slight shift of the bowl's various panels, as well as the strong taper of the shank as it thins out near the transition in a wasp-waisted style. A great example of Todd's creativity and flexibility working within a certain shape class, this Blowfish is striking piece overall, dressed in a warm, light-contrast stain and topped with some of Todd's excellent bakelite stem-work.

- Andrew Wike